After crossing the river to Jiangning County, Yang Yuanqing had been in Jiangnan for ten days. From Kuaiji County to the south to Xuancheng County to the west, he was warmly welcomed by county officials and people wherever he went.

This is a kind of support from the heart. On the one hand, the officials themselves are Sui officials and appointed by the Sui Dynasty. They recognized the inheritance of the new Sui Dynasty to the former Sui Dynasty. Yang Yuanqing's arrival was like a separated orphan who found his parents.

On the other hand, the people in the world are determined, and the people in Jiangnan are no exception. Since the beginning of the six years of turmoil in Daye, the last few years have passed.

Although Jiangnan did not encounter devastating destruction like the Central Plains and Hebei, it was also suffering from the pain of rampant bandits and warlords fighting. Whether it was the major gentry or ordinary farmers, they all yearned for peace and stability in the country and the people and living a stable life.

But ordinary people, like officials, never accept the rule of the Wei Dynasty. In the final analysis, the predecessor of the Wei Dynasty was the Wagang Army, the leader of the Central Plains bandits, and the root of the destruction of the Central Plains. Therefore, when the news of the Wei Dynasty being destroyed by the Sui army came, the entire Jiangnan area was in full swing, and people spontaneously beat drums and went to the streets to celebrate.

When Yang Yuanqing's fleet passed through every village and every county, people would spontaneously run to the riverside, beating drums and drums, singing and dancing to welcome the arrival of the King of Chu, the support and welcome of the officials and people in Jiangnan was unexpected.

Yang Yuanqing's fleet consists of more than 100 thousand stone boats, with one thousand cavalry guards on both sides of the shore. The fleet slowly travels along the Jiangnan River, which is the extension of the Tongji Canal, extending from the estuary of the Yangtze River to Kuaiji County. It was first dug by Qin Shihuang and has been repaired and unblocked in the dynasty. In the sixth year of Daye, Yang Guang ordered the expansion and diversion of the Jiangnan River, from Jingkou to Yuhang, which is more than 800 miles long and more than ten feet wide, and can be 5,000 stone dragon boats.

Yang Yuanqing stood at the bow of the boat, staring at the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan in March. The drizzle was flying and the smoke was misty. Clusters of plum blossoms bloomed in the misty rain. The beautiful scenery on both sides of the shore was as poetic as picturesque. The pretty girl from Jiangnan held an oil-paper umbrella and passed by the bridge, just like the most beautiful scenery in the picture scroll.

At this time, the fleet had temporarily left the Jiangnan Canal and sailed west along a tributary. This place belongs to Wucheng County in the southern part of Wu County. In the Southern Dynasty, it was called Wuxing County, and in the Sui Dynasty, it was called Huzhou. It was incorporated into Wu County during the Daye period and was one of the richest areas in the entire Jiangnan.

However, last year, fierce battles between Li Mi's army and Shen Faxing's army broke out in this area, and were also ravaged by war. Thousands of people fled to Taihu Lake to avoid the war. To this day, houses destroyed by war can be seen on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Half an hour later, the fleet turned south again and entered a smaller river channel. However, although the river channel was small, it could accommodate a large ship with thousands of stones of water. Gradually, a village appeared in front of the fleet.

Lu Xuanhe, the prefect of Wu County who accompanied Yang Yuanqing, pointed to the village in the distance and said, "Your Highness, that's Shenjia Village."

Yang Yuanqing nodded. This is Shenjia Village, the hometown of my aunt and Wuchen. He pondered for a while and asked again: "Can the Shen family's family extermination case be investigated?"

Lu Xuanhe hurriedly said: "It has been basically found out that it was done by Li Zhuer, a personal army captain of Shen Faxing. Li Zhuer had been to Shen's house several times and was familiar with the situation of the Shen family. After Shen Faxing died in battle, Li Zhuer brought hundreds of deserters to burn, kill and loot all the way, and specifically picked up big families to attack. A total of twenty-three households were robbed, of which eight were wiped out. The Shen family was naturally his primary target. Afterwards, the Wei minister came to the Shen family to investigate. Basically, the valuable things were stolen. Forty-eight people in the Shen family were killed. No man under the age of 60 survived. It was really unfortunate."

Yang Yuanqing could understand the robbers of robbers of wealth, but he could never understand why they wanted to destroy the family. First, there was no need to destroy the family, and second, the robbers did not humiliate women, which also made him a little confused.

"Where is this Li Zhuer now?"

"I'm already dead. I heard that it was because of uneven distribution of stolen goods with my subordinates and was dismembered by corpses. Last autumn, the villagers sent his head to the county yard and hung on the city for a few days. Most of his dozens of confidants died, and the fleeing disappeared. The government has offered a reward for arrest since last year. There has been no clue yet, so the matter has to be left alone."

The Shen family was destroyed and Yang Yuanqing was very depressed. After all, the Shen family was a relative of the foreign country, but they were unable to save it. It made him feel embarrassed. However, since things were over, he had no choice but to take a look and mourn the deceased, which was also an explanation for his aunt and Chuchen.

At this time, the ship had already entered the village and slowly docked in front of a small pier. The pier was already covered with Sui cavalry, and hundreds of villagers came to watch from afar. Perhaps because of the heavy guard, there was no warm welcome.

In fact, the people in the entire village have the surname Chen and have some relatives with the Shen family. However, Chen's ancestor, a man with great academic performance, became a Beijing official and established a family business. After more than a hundred years of continuous development, the county of the Shen family in Wuxing gradually formed.

Yang Yuanqing got off the boat, and came to Shen Guang quickly greeted him, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See Your Highness!"

Chen Guang arrived five days ago to help the Shen family solve their difficulties and prepare for Yang Yuanqing's upcoming visit. Yang Yuanqing smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, General Chen, please get up!"

Chen Guang stood up and whispered to Yang Yuanqing: "Your Highness, there is no one in the Shen family anymore. Most of the women have returned to their parents' homes. There are only some elderly people living in Chen's house, which is very desolate."

"How is the investigation of the reason for the family being destroyed?" Yang Yuanqing asked without saying a word.

"I've checked it, but... it's hard to say here." Chen Guang looked at the surrounding situation, feeling a little embarrassed.

Yang Yuanqing nodded and walked quickly into the Shen house.

At the gate of the Shen family, more than a dozen elderly people from the Shen family cried to the ground when they saw Yang Yuanqing coming. Yang Yuanqing quickly helped them up, comforted them with kind words, and promised that the government would arrange their lives. The elderly people then took their tears and invited Yang Yuanqing to the mansion.

The house is deep and old. It has been more than half a year since the massacre of the family extermination. The mansion has already cleaned up and there is no sign of the massacre.

The Chen Mansion is now supported by two children from the side house. These two people escaped because of doing business abroad. After returning, they became the pillars of the Chen Mansion, and in fact they became the new owners of the Chen Mansion.

After comforting the living and giving the dead two incense sticks to the spiritual throne, Yang Yuanqing's trip to the house completed his mission.

In a quiet room, Yang Yuanqing was drinking tea while listening to Chen Guang's investigation report quietly.

"Weizhi visited nearby villagers these days, including some survivors that night. From them, we can confirm that it was indeed caused by Li Zhuer, who led the bandits. About 400 people came by boat, but there was something strange about it."

"Continue talking." Yang Yuanqing put down the teacup, and he became a little interested.

"There are two main things. One is that these bandits did not touch women and did not insult the Shen family's family. However, none of the other robbed wealth was spared, and women would be humiliated. This is a bit strange. Secondly, they didn't stay for a long time. Although they robbed a lot of property, the Shen family's basement was not excavated. They obviously had time to dig, but they left in a hurry. The other tyrants dig three feet of the ground, giving the feeling that their wealth robbery seemed to be just a cover, and killing people was the purpose. Even the children were killed. This did not happen among other tyrants. Before that, Li Zhu'er robbed money and never destroyed the family. Since the Shen family's family's family case, seven consecutive family cases have occurred. Bei Zhi speculated that other family cases were just to cover up the truth of the Shen family."

Yang Yuanqing nodded. When he heard the news from his aunt, he intuition told him that it was a bit unreasonable. It was because of the deep hatred that the family would do this. Generally, the robbery of wealth could kill at most a few main characters, so the Shen family was destroyed by bandits, and the female family was not insulted. This is indeed unreasonable.

"Does Li Zhuer have a grudge with the Shen family?"

"No grudge. Li Zhu'er and Chen Faxing have been to Chen Mansion twice before, and both were warmly treated by the Shen family. They should have no grudges."

At this time, Yang Yuanqing felt that Li Zhu'er's death was not so simple, and he might have been killed and silenced.

"Have you found Li Zhu'er's confidant?" Yang Yuanqing asked again.

"Reporting to your highness, I found a person. There was a man named Jiang Balang, thirty miles south of Jiang Dun. He was a personal soldier of Chen Faxing. At first, he refused to admit to being involved in the Shen family's family destruction case. Later, he found the Shen family's property from his family and admitted to being involved in this matter."

"What did he say?"

"He said that when a brother suggested looting the Shen family at the beginning, Li Zhu'er rejected the suggestion because the Shen family had something to do with the concubine. Li Zhu'er was afraid that the Sui Dynasty would not forgive him. However, on the afternoon of the day when the family was destroyed, Li Zhu'er suddenly summoned everyone and said he wanted to attack the Shen family. Jiang Balang suspected that someone had contacted Li Zhu'er."

Yang Yuanqing nodded. There will be clues in everything. As long as you are willing to dig, you will gain some results. It seems that the prefect of Wujun did not want to cause trouble, so he made a fool of himself.

"Who has ever had contact with Li Zhuer? Does Jiang Balang know? Or can he guess what clues?"

Chen Xing sighed, with a look of frustration on his face, "Biyi asked him repeatedly, and even tortured him to confess. He really didn't know. Moreover, Li Zhu'er did take on several tickets of business, and he was alone and had no followers. He didn't even know where he went to discuss business. As soon as Li Zhu'er died, no one knew about this matter, including Li Zhu'er's woman, who was also killed. There was no clue to these confidant soldiers. If someone entrusted this matter, then the client was very secretive and had no loopholes. Jiang Balang suspected that even Li Zhu'er might not know who the person who entrusted him?"

Yang Yuanqing took a few steps behind his back. Although he was very interested in this case, the key point was that he had no time to continue in Jiangnan, and the battle in Jingxiang was imminent.

Moreover, he did not have the energy to investigate the trivial matter of the Shen family's destruction, and even the prefect of Wu County did not have time to consider this matter, let alone Yang Yuanqing.

Thinking of this, Yang Yuanqing ordered: "You stay for another three days. If you can find it within three days, then continue to check it. If you can't find it, go directly to Jiangning to take office."

Chen Guang was appointed as the head of Jiangnan East Road, reorganizing 30,000 surrendered troops to guard Jiangnan. He had no time and energy to inquire about the Shen family.

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